̶ 26 students of Applied Languages at Ghent University. ̶ Longitudinal corpus: 6 measures over 5 collegiate semesters. ̶ Occ 1: Start of semester 1 (à 200 hrs ...
CAROLA STROBL DEPARTMENT OF TRANSLATION, INTERPRETING, AND COMMUNICATION
ANNOTATION OF COHESION IN LEARNER CORPORA Insights from an in-depth analysis of a longitudinal data set of German L2
THIS TALK ̶ Theoretical background: The role of cohesion in L2 complexity development ̶ Data: The Ghent longitudinal corpus ̶ Methodology: measures ̶ Results (4 case studies) ̶ Conclusions: What should be annotated for largescale investigation?
Carola Strobl
LCR 2017
COHESION IN L2 WRITING Stumbling stone for advanced L2 writers (Reid 1992, Granger & Tyson 1996, Crossley & McNamara 2009,…) Reasons: ̶ Different lexico-grammatical realisations (Halliday & Hasan 1976): ‒ Reference (pronouns, deictics,…) ‒ Substitution and ellipsis ‒ Conjunction (additive, causal, temporal,…) ‒ Lexical cohesion (recurrence, hyponymy,…) ̶ Different preferences across languages (e.g., Kunz, Degaetano-Ortlieb, & Menzel 2017)
Carola Strobl
LCR 2017
COHESION, COMPLEXITY, AND L2 DEVELOPMENT Cohesion: Multidimensional system difficult to acquire in an L2 Complexity: Multidimensional system, overlaps with cohesive means L2 Complexity development
1. Parataxis
-> 2. Hypotaxis
-> 3. Grammatical metaphor e.g., Norris & Ortega 2009
Connective strategy Coordination by coordinating conjunction
Value 1
Coordination by conjunction or adverb requiring syntactic integration of the connect
2
Subordination by subordinating conjunction
3
Subordination by infinitive construction
4
Incorporation of the connect in a prepositional phrase
5
based on Langlotz 2014 and Ágel & Diegelmann 2010
Degree of integration
RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. (How) do cohesive patterns develop over time? 2. Can the analysis of cohesion add to our knowledge about complexity development? 3. What should be annotated for future large-scale investigation?
Carola Strobl
LCR 2017
THE GHENT DEVELOPMENT CORPUS ̶ 26 students of Applied Languages at Ghent University ̶ Longitudinal corpus: 6 measures over 5 collegiate semesters ̶ Occ 1: Start of semester 1 (Ø 200 hrs of secondary school instruction) ̶ Occ 2: After 6 weeks at uni (+ 39 hrs instruction) ̶ Occ 3: After 12 weeks at uni (+ 78 hrs) ̶ Occ 4: After 1,5 semesters at uni (+ 117 hrs) ̶ Occ 5: After 3,8 semesters at uni (+ 300 hrs) ̶ Occ 6: After 5 semesters at uni (+1 semester study abroad) ̶ Timed short essays (20 min), handwritten, no auxiliary means ̶ Genre: personal reflection on aspects of student life („Baseline Writing Task“)
Carola Strobl
LCR 2017
ANALYSIS METHOD AND MEASURES Whole cohort (n=26): Syntactic and clausal complexity Selected case studies (n=4): Cohesion profiles Cohesive means (based on GECCo project; Kunz et al. 2017): ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
Coreference Ellipses Lexical cohesion Conjunction (+ „Connective value“, based on Langlotz 2014)
Writing Pseudonym Second L2 Schooling Motivation efficacy Ann French 245 high high Nele Russian 245 mid high mid high Leen French 140 mid low mid high Jan English 35 mid low mid low Carola Strobl
LCR 2017
Study abroad Germany Russia Germany Germany
RESULTS: SYNTACTIC COMPLEXITY Mean Period Length
Clauses / Period
n=26 *: p
